Image 1 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
Project #-1655 Chalmers S. Murray Edisto Island, S. C. LIFE HISTORY. MISTRESS OF MAGNOLIA HALL. Everything was quiet when I drove up. A few Negroes were moving listlessly about the cotton arbor, ...

Image 3 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
3 I always get this way during the cotton picking season. Just don't seem to have any energy. All of this business - “she waved her hand in the direction of the ...

Image 5 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
5 Mrs. Devereux paused for breath, got up and walked to the window, then sat down again. She resumed her narrative. “I had never seen a Yankee in a zoo, but I ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 6 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
6 “Please tell me about the time your mother was christened, and the ball given in honor of General LaFayette. How did the famous Frenchman happen to visit Etiwan anyhow?” “People often ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 7 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
7 it could be arranged. LaFayette then suggested that since a clergyman was present, the child be christened the same evening. 'I want the privilege of naming her,' he said. “The baby ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 8 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
8 hard times followed the Civil War and the family's income was sharply reduced. Mrs. Devereux's education was cut short and the annual trips to Europe discontinued. But her father was able ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 9 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
9 thousand dollars at John Hopkins. He died about twenty-five years ago, leaving his wife and two daughters. Mrs. Devereux continued to live at Magnolia Hall. Importing a young relative from another ...

Image 11 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
11 fly to doctors every week, who put them in hospitals, or send them to the dentist to have their teeth straightened, or maybe to a surgeon to cut something out of ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 12 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
12 times, but found nothing like that. I am quite sure my Uncle John took the letters back north with him long ago.” “That's a pity,” I told her. “They would have ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 13 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
13 borrowing the money, she set aside a certain sum for the granddaughter's education. Mrs. Devereux spends considerable part of her income on charity, and is a strong supporter of the Etiwan ...

Image 15 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
15 have happened. Mercifully the timber was caught by the palmetto trees and came no further. “During the night there was a lull. You could hear a pin drop. We held our ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 16 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
16 “Yes, we picked in the heaviest blow, but there are still two fields to finish. Start on them tomorrow, I suppose, if the weather holds good,” he answered. With a twinkle ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 17 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
17 in: “Can't you let me say a few words?” This time he winked broadly at me. “Everybody in this house thinks I talk too much, “Mrs. Devereux remarked. “Well, God gave ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 18 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
18 now, since you have been planting short staple cotton and truck.” “All right,” said Weston suppressing a yawn, “Go ahead. Got a list of questions”? He seemed to be gradually coming ...

Image 20 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
20 by their mark. We held them strictly to the contract and they hardly ever made a fuss over it. Some of the planters on the island had trouble getting work out ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 21 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
21 “Please do,” I urged. “I can tell you that they got along much better then and were healthier. Their needs were simple - no cigarettes, no coffee, except once in a ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 22 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
22 “I said before that the Negroes were much healthier then. Syphilis was seldom heard of. I don't exactly know why, but suppose it was because the Negroes traveled around very little, ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 23 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
23 themselves. We can't afford to pay them more than sixty cents a day, and can't keep them steadily employed at that.” “What did they get sea island cotton times?” “Woman forty; ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 24 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
24 carried out their days. The only tenants who would do outside jobs were the ones in debt to the factor and who couldn't get any more advances. “You see, twenty-five or ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 25 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
25 “I do. That was before the big migration to the North - before the island was connected to the mainland by bridge. We had our own world here. The only connection ...

Image 27 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
27 on the average. We make a profit of about two and three quarter cents a pound, or say, fifteen dollars an acre. The average yield was 400 pounds of lint cotton ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 28 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
28 white planter to fall back on if they failed. Making sea island cotton was a ten month's job. Plowing started in February. The last of the cotton was picked around Christmas. ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 29 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
29 radio, seeing moving pictures in Charleston and riding around in automobiles. It was different in my day. We were fond of books and good conversation. When I go North I hear ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 30 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
30 allowing me to finish. “We Southerners are a fool race of people - working to support automobiles factories. Automobiles caused the depression. I wish we had our horses and buggies back. ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 31 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
31 After she had aired her opinion about automobiles, I asked her how she liked the new roads that they were building on Etiwan. “Don't like then at all,” she said. “Pretty ...

Contributor:
Murray, Chalmers S. - Laroche, Julia

Date:1939-02-05

Manuscript/Mixed Material

Image 32 of [Mistress of Magnolia Hall]
32 I was bidding Mrs. Devereux good-bye. “I hope I can have another interview with you before long,” I said, my foot on the top step. “Yes, I always enjoy talking about ...